Don’t forget, this is the last week to join 1st & Goal’s Cards of the Month Club for the December shipment. All subscriptions paid before 11/20 will be included in the 12/1 mailing. Subscriptions after 11/20 will obviously be accepted, but will have to wait until the 1/1 mailing to begin receiving cards each month.

Not sure what all the fuss is about? Check out the Cards of the Month Club page on our website. The December shipment for each Club type includes:

Now, you won’t notice a change in this blog’s web address and you won’t have to go around and change all of your blogroll links or browser bookmarks. The blog isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it will still reside and operate exactly as it always has. There is simply a new central point for all that 1st & Goal Sportscards has to offer.

The site isn’t the most attractive or sophisticated and the new store isn’t quite up and running yet, but the site is finally live, which is what I’m excited about. I’m also really stoked about the unveiling of my new Cards of the Month Club. You can read all about it on the new site. Hopefully it will interest you and you’ll consider subscribing.

So if you have some time, please poke around and let me know what you think!

I try not to use the blog to promote our sales too often, especially after our birthday bash contest failed miserably, but I thought this might appeal to the masses a bit.

To help celebrate another successful National Sports Collectors Convention, and to help all of you who brought home way more loot than you expected, we’re running a 10% sale on all card supplies this week. The sale will run from today through 9:30am EDT Sunday, August 14. Even if we sell out a certain stocked item, we will restock and continue to honor the sale through Sunday morning. Looking for something in particular and not seeing it? Let us know and we’ll consider stocking that supply item and it will also be on sale through Sunday. No hidden loop holes here. Just 10% off all supplies.

What have we been up to recently? Listing new items on eBay, that’s what! Today I just listed over 100 new items in our eBay store, including 80 basketball cards (nearly all of which are autographs or jerseys) and a bunch of non-card collectibles. If you haven’t checked out the eBay store in a while, now might be a good time to do so. A few items have already sold, so check them out before they’re all gone!

In blog news, be on the look out for a new product review (2011 Donruss Elite) and a return to business as usual for our HOF Spotlight and Heisman Highlight features. You might even see a Pearl Jam post in the next week.

Also, don’t forget to let us know your thoughts on possible 1st and Goal Group Breaks. We’d really like to get that ball rolling again, and your feedback is what we need to do so. Let your voice be heard! We hope to get even more participation this year than last year, so tell your friends, too!

Yes, I realize there’s been a general lack of activity on the blog. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about cards or working to better organize the card closet. What it does mean is that I’ve been super busy at work and home, particularly with recently completing the requirements to become a CPA and readying the house for a baby in about 6 more weeks.

One of the things in the back of my mind has been wanting to do another group break. I’m thinking this time I’d like to try a case break as I’ve never had the opportunity to buy and bust an entire case before, and my current resources mean it will be a while off yet if I try to go it alone. So the question for y’all is what interests you? With the NFL lockout officially over, it’s time to get the football card machine in full operation. Here are some options:

1) Go with something high end that neither you nor I would typically buy into. It took take the form of something like Topps Inception. Each person would get relatively few cards, but each card, even the base cards, should be pretty sweet. Price per team would probably be around $35.

2) Go with something mid-level like Topps Chrome or Finest. The quantity per person will certainly increase over a high-end product, but there also wouldn’t be a huge drop off in quality of the hits. These products generally seem to be a pretty good bet for group break success. Price per team would probably be right around $30 (the price most likely won’t change much between the options as the quality/quantity of cards is the main difference).

3) Go with something lower-end like Topps’ flagship product. Each person gets a load of cards from their team(s) and there is still a chance for some great hits. I’d probably work a concept where you get every card from your team that is pulled, but then duplicates are pooled and evenly distributed (but all hits, regardless of duplication, go to the assigned team/person). Price per team again would probably be around $30 but might be able to drop closer to $25.

4) Go super low-end with something like Score. This might be an option specifically geared towards set collectors. I would do the duplicate pooling with this option, and with so few hits, each person could probably walk away with a nearly, if not 100%, completed base set (and hopefully a lot of inserts as well). Price per team would likely be $25 or less.

Each option would be blind submission-based. Buy-in period would run for about 1-2 weeks with each person simply signing up for one or more slots, up to 32. About a week before the group break results are disclosed, teams will be randomly assigned to paid slots, allowing a week for people to trade for favorite teams. Once the results are posted, all team assignments will be locked and cards will shoot to be mailed within a few days.

So what do you guys think? Anyone interested? If possible, I’d love to get a few group breaks going, maybe a product from each category. Also, we can spread this out over time as some products (Topps Chrome) aren’t set to release until late October anyway while others are already out (Score) or will soon release (Topps flagship). I am open to any and all suggestions for how to tweak the policies stated above and certainly for the product suggestions.

As previously mentioned on this blog, I am interested in branching into sales of sealed boxes and packs. That quest starts today.

The all-new 1&G Pre-Sales site is now live. We currently have 6 products available to pre-order, the first being 2011 Panini Prestige, which is set to release in just two weeks. All prices on the website include shipping and handling for USPS Priority Mail within the United States. For Canadian customers, please add just $5 for International Priority Mail.

We are also pleased to announce our Pre-Sale Guarantee: If our final release date price drops after you order, we will reimburse you the difference. On the other hand, if our final release date price increases after you order, you won’t be charged an extra dime. That’s our promise to you: to deliver the best possible products at the best possible prices.

Also, word on the street is that every pre-sale order will include a freebie or two. Just something to keep in mind…

Please bear in mind, in order to keep costs down, I designed and coded the entire website myself…and I am not a professional website developer, so the site is a bit crude and simplistic. Please let me know if you find any bugs in the system (orders won’t process, images won’t load, links are broken, etc.).

At this time, 1&G Pre-Sales will only be available through our own website. You will, however, be able to checkout using a PayPal account or a credit/debit card if you don’t have PayPal. Due to eBay’s fees, I just didn’t think we could cover our costs and retain competitive prices through our eBay store. If you are interested in any of our products but insist on buying through eBay, please contact us and we will work with you.

In another push to convince myself that losing all of my original graphic files is not going to be a death sentence for First and Goal, I have just unleashed two more ways to connect with fans and for them to connect with me. I had thought about doing this for a while now and decided the time was right.

First and Goal is now on Facebook and Twitter.

That’s right, I finally gave in and decided to give both of these social media monsters a go. I have been on Facebook as an individual for a while now, but I am completely new to Twitter. Let’s see what all the fuss is about.

If you are interested in “Liking” or “Following” First and Goal, here are the links:

I will probably use these outlets as more of a way to get quick updates out to the masses. Like today’s Tweet about 2010 Panini Epix going live. I also know that some people spend almost their entire waking day on social media sites, so I don’t want to alienate those souls.

So “Like” and “Follow” First and Goal and then remember to vote in the Group Breaks survey. It literally takes 3.42 seconds to answer this poll.